PRUNING AND CARE OF ORCHARDS. It is a somewhat general opinion that the agri culture of 100 years ago was crude and of the simplest kind. It was especially supposed that ' horticulture was given but little attention. It is true the implements of cultivation were crude and inefficient, as compared with our day, and the cultivation laborious. Practically, however, the cultivation was most excellent, the soil, climate and condition seem carefully to have been studied. In respect to pruning, the system of well furnished heads for fruit trees was then advocated as is now the case by the better in formed in the United States, and especially in the West. Knight, upon the subject of prun ing, is coincided with by Dickson, a voluminous and competent English authority of the early part of the century, and is quoted as advocating the protection of trees by allowing the foliage to grow dense and thick. The cutting away of branches is especially condemned, as is the opening out of centers of trees. There seems to have been tree butchers then as now. Upon this subject Knight says: " The ignorant pruner gets into the middle of the tree, and lays about • him right and left, till he leaves only small tufts of branches on the extremity of the large ( boughs. The branches now receiving the wholenourishment of the tree of course increases rapidly, and soon become, when loaded with fruit or snow, too heavy for the long naked boughs—which are, of necessity, full of dead knots from the former labors of the pruner—to support. Many hundreds of trees perish annu ally from this cause. It is believed the present system of pruning ought to he precisely re versed, and that the pruner should confine him self almost entirely to the extremity of the branches and leave the internal parts of the tree nearly as he finds it. Large branches should rarely or never he amputated." He also in stances the protection afforded to trees by their thick foliage., From the above it is seen that light pruning was considered the best in England more than 100 years ago. If correct in the humid climate of England with its low tempera ture, how much more important in the West with its dry, hot, summer climate. We now advocate as little pruning as may be compatible with habit and due symmetry of form of the trees. Abrasion of the branches should be pre vented. The habit of the variety should, in every case, be taken into account in pruning. Some trees bear the fruit at or near the extrem ity of the branches, others do so within the shelter of the foliage. The olden writers on horticulture gave special attention to the varie ties of the apple fit for cider. The apple was then regarded as of special value if it made good, sound cider. The uses for which the ap ple is now used are changed, in this country, to what it was 100 years ago. The superior old cider fruits have almost disappeared from our lists, and apples superior for cooking and for dessert have taken their place. Soils would seem to have been carefully considered iu the olden time. There were various opinions then as to the best soils, and the quality of soils adapted to the varieties of the apple just as there are now. A century before Knight wrote, the best apples were thought to be raised on light sandy Maras, especially so for cider of fine body and quality. In linight's time a soil of entirely different nature was chosen, strong red clays, but Mr. Knight is careful to explain that much of the soil, then called clay, is really an argillaceous marl, some of it containing so large a propor tion of calcareous earth that it effervesced strongly, under the action of an acid. This was
considered a most superior soil for producing sound cider, free from austerity. Upon soils so underlaid were found the best orchards of that day. Nevertheless, it was held that the best cider apples were produced on a " shallow loam on a limestone basis." The best orchards to-day are upon precisely such soils. A limestone soil, if well drained, is a good fruit soil anywhere, and no soils are better adapted to fruits than our marly clays and the loess formations of the West. A Herefordshire, English, report of the early part of the century, gives some interesting information as to soils adapted to varieties, vari eties adapted to a special purpose, and also upon a question which has long excited contro versy—in this country—the effect of graft on stock, and the influence of soils upon grafted varieties. Upon this subject the report says : " There can be no doubt but the apple tree is capable of succeeding in soils of very different qualities, pro vided they be perfectly free from stagnant (excessive) moisture; that from many trials in retentive soils, where the bottom is wet, they begin to grow mossy, and decline in the course of a very few years. Experiment, it says, had shown that early fruits ohtiiin their greatest perfection in a sandy soil, and the. late ones answer best when they are planted in a stropg loamy or clayey one. The more celebrated of the cider fruits there known for light, sandy soils, were the Styre. Hagloe Crab and the Golden' Pippin. It was stated as beyond controversy that cuttings from the same tree grafted on similar stocks, but planted in different soils, produced different liquors. And, it was also admitted that liquors of the strongest body, and which kept best, were produced from trees grown on clayey soils." The following was compiled some years ago by the editor and is introduced h6re as valuable 'to pomologists now : " Of the varieties of rep utable cider fruits given in Dickson's Agricul ture, those that have come down to us as retain ing their original names in Downing and Warder's works are Styre, Hagloe Crab, Red Streak, Golden Pippin, Russet, Wine Apple, Margil Green (Aromatic ?), Cornish, Cats-head, and Brandy Apple. Of these, the Styre, an early sort, is noted for the strength and excel lence of its cider. The yellowest, or forest Styre, from which we infer there were others of that name, is described by Mr. Crocker as being small, red on one side, and a fine yel low ou the other; of a mild, pleasant acid, making an excellent cider." In relation to pro ductiveness of sorts, Crocker says of the Nor mandy, of which there are three varieties, " the yellow, white and green; all of a bitter sweet taste, make rich cider and of a high color, and the trees are abundant bearers; ,thirty, trees of this variety, in the fifth year from grafting pro duced five hogsheads of cider of 100 gallons each. Allowing ten bushels of apples to the barrel of thirty-two gallons, this would give an average of nearly six bushels per tree, at five years from grafting." This would seem to show that we have not gained much in early maturity of sorts during this century. It shows, also, that our forefathers did not take much stock in the assertions of leading cultivators of a later day, that the grafter could not expect to gather the fruit of the trees he might plant. (See also Horticulture, Orcharding, etc.)